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Going Nowhere: Simon Faithfull

An exhibition bringing together two recent works: 0º00 Navigation and Going Nowhere 2 as well proposals and drawings.

‘Going Nowhere’ is a body of work exploring the idea of nowhere - reporting back from elaborate and futile journeys in search of this 'place'. The key artworks are two films both presenting quixotic and absurd quests in search of ‘nothing’. ‘0º00 Navigation’ (2009) presents an obsessive journey across the landmass of England exactly following the Greenwich Meridian (guided by GPS, the artist first swims out of the English Channel before climbing over, crawling under or wading through whatever obstacles he meets). ‘Going Nowhere 2’ (2011) presents a walk through a landscape at the bottom of the Adriatic Sea (the artist walking laboriously through a landscape of fish, rocks and watery light). In 2011, together with drawings, photographs and proposals, this body of work formed the basis for Faithfull’s solo exhibition ‘Going Nowhere’ at Parker’s Box, New York.

‘0º00 Navigation’ also featured in Faithfull’s solo exhibition ‘Recent Findings’ (Harris Museum, Preston, 2010) and in the two person exhibition ‘Schwerlos’ (Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, 2009). The piece appeared in many group exhibitions including 'There is no Road' (Laboral, Spain, 2008), Rohkunstbau, Macht (Potsdam, Germany, 2011) and ‘Broken Fall, Organic’ (Galleria Enrico Astuni, Bologna, Italy, 2011).

‘Going Nowhere 2’ appeared in Faithfull’s solo exhibition 'Wanderings' (ICIA, Bath University, 2013) and featured in group shows including ‘Tracing Mobility' (HKW, Berlin, 2011) and ‘Fesitival la Côte d’Albâtre’ (Diep, France, 2013).

Critical texts about these works include essays by Robert MacFarlane in the monograph ‘Going Nowhere’ (Film and Video Umbrella, 2009), David Evans in ‘The Art of Walking’ (Black Dog, 2013) and Tate Papers: ‘To the Ends of the Earth: Art and Environment’ (Nicholas Alfrey, Stephen Daniels, Joy Sleeman, 2012) which was produced following the ‘Art & Environment’ conference at Tate Britain at which Faithfull presented ‘0º00 Navigation’ as part of his paper ‘Three Journeys’.